Q-Line: What’s up with the weather?

Last week was bitterly cold, while the past weekend was typical Southern California beautiful. It could just be a trend, or it could be something more serious.

This past week, Q-line asked:
Do you think global warming has something to do with our topsy-turvy weather or was the big shift just a coincidence?

Here are your responses:

“Yes, I think we are having global warming, but I don’t think this topsy-turvy weather has anything to do with it. I remember I moved out to L.A. back in 1976, election day … . It was 30 degrees in Jersey. L.A. airport was 95 degrees. And in the middle of January of ‘77, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to stay out here, but I was playing baseball in Griffith Park with shorts on and a T-shirt and there was snow in the mountains. It was about 85 degrees and the temperature in New York was 3 below, so I knew I made the right choice. But I think that this weather is normal for Southern California.”

“Of course global warming has had a serious effect on worldwide weather. Witness the superstorm on the East Coast recently. A terrible nightmare. Absolutely unbelievable … . And of course, human destruction of our rainforests around the globe by burgeoning overpopulation and exploiting our natural resources. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We are in for it, folks, if we don’t wake up and do something now.”

“The weather has been absolutely heavenly. I lived back east for a short time when I was a little girl. This is why everybody wants to come here and live here in the beautiful San-Malicious. The weather has been heavenly. But of course, it’s about to change in the next couple of days. I guess we’re going to have an inundation of rain. Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day… Maria wants to play.”

“Back in November, there was a day that had the coldest temperature recorded in 1932. The next year, 1933, was the hottest temperature recorded on that day. Still, global warming or global cold is a natural occurrence of the Earth. Camp-follower scientists who will support anything for research, lab funds and trips to Thailand for scientific conventions, providing assistance to hookers and young boys, should be suspect. Sleazy politicians — is there any other kind? — will alarm uninformed voters with sham statistics and environmental half-truths. Remember: There is a lie, and then a bigger lie and then statistics. Progressives will support more taxpayer, Earth-healing programs with bogus announcements. Nowadays, politicians love leading from behind and spending against the public good. The farce of global warming is another tax on the ability of corporations to profit ideas that benefit us. Rather than see government as your wet nurse, look at past, unfettered American ingenuity to adapt and provide.”

“Yes. From what I’ve read, even Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro does not have as much snow as it used to. It’s almost bare. So yes, I definitely think that the weather has been affected by over-warming. So yes, I do think that there’s more than a shift. It’s not just a coincidence. But, you just gotta go with the flow.”

“Today, Monday, is warm. There are women wearing short dresses, miniskirts, shorts. If this is ‘global warming’ I can take it.”

“We have cyclical events in climate. I think that mankind can influence it to some small degree but the major forces are the cyclical changes in Earth’s behavior. I think that if you go back 200 million years ago, we would all see there’s always change. I grew up in Los Angeles and I remember when I walked to school in the snow, a foot of snow, and I also remember celebrating Christmas in 100-degree weather in Southern California. So this is not unusual, it’s just one of those things that happens. I think that we should all put that into perspective.”
“No coincidence … . Please read ‘Wild weather arrives as arctic thaws’ by Dr. Reese Halter, Back to Nature, Jan. 11, 2011. As ice at the poles melts yet further, (and perhaps even more rapidly), various bizarre hot/cold atypical weather patterns will continue to present intensifying impacts as they do. The sad thing is, it now seems much less likely that enough of us will actually choose to stop, (or even significantly lessen), our habitual climate balance-altering practices so that those coming impacts might be less harshly felt. Too many are still waiting for someone else to take genuine action, or as unwisely, still thinking, (until it will be too late to act), that human actions aren’t bringing us to these changes in the natural process.”

“Bitter cold? I’ve lived here 36 years and have never seen one day in Santa Monica that I would describe as ‘bitter cold.’ I grew up on the Great Plains where ‘bitter cold’ is something that began when the mercury dropped below zero. We had a couple of weeks of cool weather recently, but it didn’t break any records. The lowest temperature recorded this winter at Third and Idaho by my digital weather station was 43 degrees. In other years, it has dipped into the upper 30s. The days that never rose out of the 50s were a slight bit less normal. I’m no meteorologist or climatologist, but my guess is that those couple of cool weeks were just normal weather variations.”

“Every so many tens of thousands of years, Earth goes through the same pains. Read your natural history books. Unfortunately, we don’t have any written history of events that took place that far back.”